Love Is Just A Game (Collection of Kenma Kozume One-shots)
by WizzyGameMaster
Summary: A nice little collection of one-shots about Kenma Kozume.
1. Gamers

"You're in luck. Looks like we've got one copy of it," the guy behind the counter said. This little game shop was one I came to pretty often, so I'd gotten to know a few of the guys who worked there. Lucky for me, the two here today were ones I knew. Yutaro was the one talking to me now. "Should be right on the shelf."

I shook my head. "I looked, but I didn't see it." It was possible that I just missed it though.

That was when the other guy spoke. His name was Satori and his appearance always reminded me of someone, though I could never remember who. "Why don't you have Eagle Eyes find it?" he suggested, laughing like there was some joke that I wasn't aware of. Though I was curious: who was this 'Eagle Eyes'?

Yutaro grinned like Kuroo always did. "That's right... _she's_ working today, isn't she?" So there was a third person working today... wait... did he just say 'she'? As in a female?

Without another word passing between them, Satori called out to this other employee."Yo Eagle Eyes!" Almost instantly, a girl peeked out from the other side of a row of shelves. "Resident Evil 5, go!"

"On it!" The girl just flashed a grin and disappeared from view.

Satori and Yutaro just chuckled to themselves. "She's a cutie, huh?" Yutaro said, smirking. "It's too bad that she's a bit young for us. But not for you I guess." From what I knew, the two were 23 and 25, with Satori being the younger.

Satori laughed. "She's single by the way." There was another Kuroo-smirk. "She's great in bed, by the way." That earned him a punch in the shoulder from his coworker. "Ow! I just heard it from Kou! It's not like I did anything with her. Though I wouldn't mind if-" He was cut off by another punch from Yutaro.

"Are you boys ever going to grow up?"

 _(Reader's POV)_

"Are you boys ever going to grow up?" I said in a scolding tone. So immature... but there were my friends. Slowly, I made my way over. In my hands was the game that the one boy had been looking for. I'd actually found it almost as soon as they'd asked, but I wanted to hear a bit of their conversation.

Of course, I didn't expect Satori to mention the brief fling I'd had with his brother Koutaro. Not to a stranger at least. Even if the stranger was cute. His hair was interesting too. What was that word again for hair like that... pudding head? I think that was it.

"Nope," Satori grinned at me. Then, as I figured he would, he gestured to the boy he'd been talking to. "This is Kenma. He comes in a lot, but this is the first time you two have been here at the same time."

I nodded politely to him. "It's nice to meet you, Kenma," I said handing him the game. "Have you played this one yet?" He shook his head. "Well, it's definitely a good one. It's even better if you play it co-op."

As I smiled at him, he awkwardly looked away. That, unsurprisingly, gave Satori something to tease about. "Maybe you could be his co-op," he said suggestively.

"Oh shut up Satori," I playfully scolded him.

"Hmm? Did you make some new friends, Kenma?" a voice called out as I saw a taller guy with messy hair make his way over. Must have been a friend of his. "You ready to go?"

Kenma nodded and started to leave with his friend. But what Satori had said had given me an idea. I couldn't let him leave quite yet.

"Hey Kenma, wait a sec!" I called to the boy before looking at Satori who gave me a knowing grin and tossed me a pen and some paper. Quickly scribbling something down, I handed the paper to Kenma. "If you're ever looking for a co-op, give me a call."

He smiled and waved goodbye while I tried to ignore Satori's teasing. Kenma seemed quite interesting and, if I ever got the chance, I would have liked to get to know him.

 _Extended Ending:_

As the two walked away from the little game shop, they talked about the scene that had just played out. "You know she was hitting on you, right?"

"No she wasn't."

"She definitely was. When she said that, she was offering _more_ than just playing video games."

"You don't know that."

"Actually, I do. I know her."

"She didn't seem to know you."

Kuroo decided to rethink his former response. "I know her, but we've never met."

"How?"

"Well, awhile back Bokuto was whining about being a virgin, so his bro Satori hooked him up with a girl he worked with. And afterwards Bokuto wouldn't stop bragging about how awesome it was and kept showing me pictures."

"So that's why Satori always looked so familiar..."

There was silence between the two boys for awhile. "So you gonna call her?"

Kenma thought about his question for a few moments before answering. "Maybe." After all, she did know more about the game than he did.


	2. Playing Games

New schools always interested me. The people in them even more so.

Currently, my newest friend, Sakura, was going on and on about all the boys in the school. Kiko, another girl sitting with us, occasionally added a few words as well.

Among everyone, one in particular caught my eye. "Who's that?" I made a motion towards a blonde haired boy who was incredibly focused on something on his phone.

My friends seemed surprised by my question. Apparently others never paid much attention to the guy. "Him? That's Kenma Kozume."

"Kenma, huh?" I hummed. "He's kinda cute. What do you know about him?"

Sakura was a bit surprised by my bold comment, but quickly recovered. "He's quiet, keeps to himself a lot."

"He's also in the Volleyball Club," Kiko added, taking a quick look at the boy.

"Alright, what else?"

"He seems to spend a lot of time playing games."

"Any friends?"

"Not really."

"He doesn't socialize."

As they went on saying things about the cute boy, I found myself becoming more and more interested in him. "Really?"

"Yeah." Kiko looked over at the boy who was still completely focused on his phone. "It's like he hardly reacts to anything at all."

"No reactions, huh?" For a girl like me, a guy who didn't usually react to anything was an interesting challenge that I could never resist. "Sounds like Kenma Kozume is going to be a fun one."

"Fun?" Both girls next to me looked at me with an expression of pure shock. "Kenma Kozume is _fun_?"

"How is that even possible?"

"Because I'm going make Mr Reactionless over there react in ways you never imagined."

"What are you going to do, seduce him?"

With a playful smirk, I came up with a plan in my head. "Maybe I will, maybe I won't."

After waiting for the perfect time, I approached my victim. "Hey there." He didn't respond. "You know when a lady says hello, you're supposed to respond." When he still didn't speak, I frowned. There had to be some way to get this cutie's attention. Then I got an idea.

Standing behind him, I leaned forward, making sure my chest was pressed against his back. Let's see him ignore me now. "What are you doing?"

"So you do speak, huh Kenma?" I giggled innocently. Oh how I love to play games like this. I leaned forward a bit more. Now my face was right next to Kenma's. If we were to turn our heads at the same time, we'd no doubt collide. "What's this little game?"

I could see his face turning red. "Why are you so close to me?" Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed three figures watching us closely. On was a handsome bedheaded fellow who was busy trying to hold back a very tall guy with the help of a shorter, light haired guy. Tall Guy looked like he really wanted to come rushing over. Bedhead looked like he was actually amused at the sight of us.

"Hey, I've played this game before." Actually, I'd never seen this game in my life. "How'd you manage to beat level twenty?" He was on level 63, so I assumed there was a level 20. I mean, what game has a level 63 without a 20? "I'm sort of stuck there."

Kenma calmly explained it, though his face was still red. As he went through it, I acted like I was listening, occasionally throwing in a random question to make it look like I was actually interested. Though the only thing I was interested in was getting a reaction out of this guy.

After a long explanation, I finally got my chance. "Alright, I think I get it now." Slowly, I wrapped my arms around him. "So, you got a girlfriend, cutie?" Kenma instantly froze. The blush on his face grew darker and he was beginning to look like a tomato statue.

At that moment, the bedheaded guy who was still watching us burst out laughing. Unable to stop myself, I released Kenma and started laughing hysterically. Bedhead's laugh sounded like a villain. "Your laugh is hilarious!" I just barely got the words out; I was laughing so hard.

After I'd calmed down, Bedhead stood between me and my adorable victim. On his face was a very serious expression. The only words he said were calm, but there was no doubt in my mind that it was a threat. "I'd appreciate it if you'd stop trying to mess with our setter. Playing games like that is very cruel. Don't you dare try it again or we may not be so forgiving."


	3. No More Games

It's funny how you can remember things at strange times. Right now I found myself thinking back to the moment I'd met a certain someone who had caught my attention.

At the time, I'd merely thought that he might be fun to try and mess with. Though that thought had been quickly derailed by his bedheaded friend. But even though I'd only been messing with... what was his name again? Oh well, doesn't matter... one thing I had said was entirely honest; I really did think he was cute.

Right now, I was replaying that entire event in my mind as I walked along the street. I really should have been paying attention to where I was going instead though, because I ended up getting lost. Having only moved to the area recently, it was quite obvious how wandering off could create some issues. Lucky for me, I soon ran into a guy wearing red clothing with "Nekoma" written across the back. Or I assumed it did, as I could only see fragments of the letters.

"Hey!" I called out the guy, not even bothering to look at anything other than his clothing. However, once he turned to face me, we were both in for a shock. It was the same boy I'd been messing with a week or so ago. Or had he been the one from two days ago? No, it was two weeks. I'd seen him on my first day at Nekoma.

The second he saw me, he turned and started walking just a bit faster than he had been. Okay, I couldn't say I blamed him for wanting to run away from me; he'd seemed really flustered after our one encounter. But right now was a bad time for this. It's not like I could ask anyone for help; he was the only one around that I could actually trust.

"Please wait!" I called out as I ran to catch up to him, my voice sounding more desperate than I'd intended it to. Grabbing his arm lightly, I finally got him to stop.

He turned towards me with an emotionless face. "Kuro says I shouldn't talk to you." That hit me like a knife. This 'Kuro' person must be that bedheaded guy who told me off for trying to mess with Kenma. Aha! That's right, Kenma was this guy's name.

"Kuro?"

"He means me," a voice said near us. That was a voice I wasn't about to forget. Bedhead. "Tetsuro Kuroo. Now you get away from Kenma, you vixen."

I flinched at his insult. Sure, it wasn't the first time I'd been called something like that, but it had never been to my face and never when I was genuinely trying to ask for help. "I wasn't even doing anything!" I whimpered as Bedhead/Kuroo started dragging Kenma away.

"I'm not going to give you a chance to." Kuroo's so mean... But could you really blame him after the way I acted the one time we'd met before? He was probably protective of Kenma.

Watching them walking away, I felt my heart sinking. They'd really leave a girl like me all alone and defenseless out here? And to think they thought I was cruel... Acting solely out of desperation, I called out to Kenma once more. "I'm lost and don't know who else to ask for help..."

The pair stopped and Kuroo looked back at me. Something told me he didn't believe me. "Why don't you just call your family or a friend?"

"Don't you think that I would have done that already if I could?" None of my family would be anywhere near here for at least another week. And having only moved here recently, I hadn't exactly made any friends. None that would actually help me out, at least. "I don't have anyone else that can help me and I... I don't want to ask a stranger because I'm alone at home."

"Too bad..." Kuroo just resumed walking with Kenma at his side. But after a few steps, Kenma stopped and looked back at me as I stared sadly at him.

 _Don't leave me alone..._ I silently pleaded. I hated to think of all the things that could happen.

Kenma said something that I couldn't hear, making his friend stop and stare back at him. The two had a little discussion between themselves before Kuroo continued walking on. They were going to leave me. They were really leaving me out here by myself.

But Kenma didn't follow right after his bedheaded friend. His gaze turned to me and he made a motion with his hand. A little sort of wave... a goodbye? No... more like a 'follow me' sort of motion. With a smile I ran to catch up.

Maybe Kenma was a good guy after all. I had to remember to find some way to thank him later... and to apologize for my behavior the first time.


	4. Remember

"So pretty..." She shouldn't be out here this late in the evening. She knows this very well, but little Kozume cannot resist chasing after the fireflies. They lead her off to a small clearing in the forest. It's a lovely little place, but in the darkness, it's also a bit scary.

Suddenly, something behind a nearby tree catches her eye. It's a little boy about the same age as her. Maybe early elementary age at most. He peeks out at her, curious. The boy isn't human; he's a nymph: a nature spirit. He wonders who this girl is; this little girl in his forest.

He's been all alone until now, so he doesn't know how to act. But he doesn't need to do anything at all because little Kozume is already standing in front of him.

She smiles at him. "Hello! What's your name?" She's an innocent little girl, completely unaware of the dangers of being out alone so late. The child has no idea that this little boy before her is not what he seems.

The boy starts to answer, but then he realizes he does not have a name. He has no family, no friends... no one to call him by a name nor to even give him one. "I... I don't have a name."

Little Kozume is surprised by this. What person does not have a name? However, she will not let this get in the way. She twirls around in a circle and giggles to herself. "If you don't have one, then I'll give you one!" she decides. "I'll call you Kenma!"

He likes this name, he decides. It has such a nice sound that he can't help but smile.

And so Kozume and Kenma's friendship began. She took him home with her and he soon because a part of the family. Kenma even made friends with Kozume's other best friend Kuroo. All was happy.

But like all good things, that happiness would come to an end.

"Hey Kenma," Kuroo calls to his best friend. The two boys have grown older now. Kenma is now in his second year of high school: Kuroo is in his third. "Do you know who this is? I dound it while I was cleaning out my closet."

In the elder's hand is an photograph. It shows three young children: a shy Kenma, a mischievous Kuroo and a sweet little girl. Kenma knows this girl very well. How could he possibly forget the one who gave him not only his name, but also a family?

"You don't remember her?" Kenma knows that the two of them had been really young, probably too young to really remember her, but it hurts to know that the one who'd known her the longest had forgotten his best friend.

Kuroo has always known Kenma better than others, so it surprises him to see Kenma showing that bit of emotion so easily. "So you do know."

Slowly Kenma nodded. Calmly, he tells Kuroo the story. He begins with that night in the woods and ends with the fate that befell the poor Kozume girl. As he tells the tale of how she'd gotten really sick one winter, the wheels in his friend's mind begin to turn.

One cold winter, little Kozume had gotten sick. As time went on, it slowly got worse and soon she ended up in the hospital. But that hadn't been any help; no matter what they did, she wouldn't get any better.

When she died, her parents were heartbroken. Unable to handle the painful memory, they stored away their lost daughter's things and everything that reminded them of her. They hoped that with time, they might be able to forget; Kuroo's parents had hoped the same, removing all memory of her so that Kuroo would never remember. And until now, it had worked.

Of course, as Kuroo heard the story now, he stared at Kenma in confusion. "Wait, so your last name isn't actually Kozume?"

Kenma only smiled. The girl's family had taken him in as a child. He'd eventually taken her last name as his too. This way he would never forget.

Maybe it's because of that, that sometimes he thought he saw her: that little girl would twirl around and then he thought he heard her giggle. Sometimes, he even thought he heard her speaking to him. And every time, he'd smile and remember that she's always with him as long as he remembers.


	5. Hurt

As I was discussing some stuff about today's practice match with Karasuno's captain, something strange caught my eye. My best friend, Kenma, was socializing. And not only that, it was a girl who was with him.

He was playing some game on his phone and she was right next to him, pointing at things on the screen and occasionally tapping on it. I couldn't hear what she was saying, but it must have meant something to Kenma because it made him smile. Maybe she was helping him on a level or something?

"That's an interesting little development," I hummed, not looking away from the duo. "Who is that girl?"

She was a small girl, I probably would have confused her for a middle schooler if she hadn't been wearing Karasuno's high school uniform. With as cute as she was, it was a real shock that she might possibly know as much about games as Kenma.

"Her?" Karasuno's captain had a surprised look on his face. "I don't know her name, but she's a first year. I only know her because the teachers always have her run errands for them."

"She usually doesn't say anything, so no one really notices her," another voice added in. He was one of the setters, Sugawara, I thought his name was. "This is the first time I've ever seen her say more than a sentence."

 _(Reader's POV)_

"For this map, the best starting formation is-" I tapped on the screen, placing the three guardians in the best locations. "Then you want to upgrade this one and this one." After pointing out the two, I pointed to the the third one. "But don't bother with upgrading this one."

"Why not?" the boy beside me asked in a very calm voice.

With a smile, I started to explain. "Upgrading the Ice guardians doesn't really do anything. Overall, they're pretty useless. They have a very small attack range and they're not very strong. But their attacks will slow the enemies, which allows the stronger guardians like Myth, Fire and Balance to hit them more."

As I explained it a bit more, a smile appeared on his face. "You know a lot about this game." His eyes shifted up and for the first time, I was able to get a good look at his face. "How far are you?"

"I've beaten all the free zones, so I'm working on clearing Celestia now." Reaching into my pocket, I took out my own cell phone and pulled up the game. Flipping through the zones, I found my furthest level so that I could show him. "This is the highest difficulty I'd seen on here."

"Insane? How many levels is that about the Hard difficulty?"

"Let's see..." Even with as much as I knew, it was hard to come up with an answer to that. "There's Easy, Medium, then Hard..." It never occurred to me that I could simply have just looked at the game itself, as I was currently holding it in my hand. "Then I think Very Hard and Extreme follow that. And I thought there was one more after that before Insane."

Being too absorbed in our talk of the game, neither of us noticed that we'd drawn the attention of several others in the room. It wasn't until one of them spoke that I realized anyone was paying any attention to us. "Looks like we've found a female Kenma."

Beside the light haired guy who spoke was a guy with a very strange hairstyle. To be honest, I couldn't tell if he'd purposely made it look like that or if it was just bedhead. "You'd be a great couple."

"You're wrong." The guy with bedhead didn't look like he liked my reaction.

"Oh? What's wrong?" he questioned, leaning towards me. If he was trying to intimidate me or make me uncomfortable, it wasn't exactly working. "Is our Kenma not good enough for you?"

Sure, that may have been the most logical guess, but it wasn't like that at all. "You have it backwards," I said softly, trying not to sound too sad. "Kenma seems wonderful, but..."

"But what?"

I opened my mouth to speak, but closed it again. This wasn't something that could be explained simply. I couldn't possibly begin to explain how I'm a defective human. Friends... lovers... I always ended up hurting those I cared about. And with as nice as Kenma was, the thought that I might hurt him broke my heart. Better to stop it before it had a chance to start. "I'd only end up hurting him."

"What kind of excuse is that?" Bedhead seemed almost offended by my words. But who could blame him? Even I'll admit that it sounded like a lame excuse.

"It's just the truth." Bowing slightly, I decided I should make my exit. "I... I need to be going now."

 _(Kenma's POV)_

"Wait-" I tried to stop her, but by the time I spoke, she was already gone. There was still more I wanted to talk to her about... She knew so much about this game, while I was only a beginner.

Of course, Kuroo would take my reaction the wrong way. "Do you like her, Kenma?"

"It's not that..." I hesitated as I tried to word it right. She seemed so nice, but I'd barely talked to her. I mean, you could develop a crush on a girl that quickly, right? "I just... wanted to ask her... about a couple more levels..."

"I can get her number for you," Shoyo offered. He seemed sort of oblivious to what Kuroo had picked up on instantly, but that was better than him assuming what Kuroo had. "Then you can ask her about them any time!"

His sudden offer was very surprising. I'd really like to be able to talk to her again, and not just about games. I didn't dare say that out loud though. Of course, Kuroo probably already knew exactly what I was thinking. Regardless, I did want her number and nodded in response to Shoyo's words. "Thanks, Shoyo."


	6. If The Start Is Different

Despite many people insisting that Kenma and I would make a good couple, we stayed friends. With my history with guys and relationships, it was sure to end badly if we got any closer than we were. No matter how much I might have wanted to get closer to him, I knew it would only end the same as it had every other time.

Lately, I'd been visiting him every weekend. We'd spend the entire time playing video games, but sometimes we'd talk a little about other things. It was usually little things like what had happened that week and what we'd been doing in school, but today, Kenma had something bigger on his mind.

"Kuro keeps telling me that I should ask you out," he said calmly, leaning back and staring up at the ceiling. "I tell him that you'll just say the same thing you said before." He turned his head to look at me. "When you said that you'd only end up hurting me, it sounded like a pathetic excuse. But I could tell that you really believed it."

As he talked about it, it felt like my entire body went cold. I expected that he'd now ask why I felt like that. Just thinking about telling him about it made me feel even more uneasy, but I guess he deserved to know.

Taking a deep breath, I slowly started to explain it as simply as I could. "Every time I've gotten close to someone, it's ended badly. And every time..." The words stuck in my throat and my hand clenched into a fist. I wanted desperately to forget all about it, but it was something that would haunt me for the rest of my life. "Every time it was my fault..."

I could feel my body shaking, but I wasn't sure why. Fear? Nervousness? Pain? Whatever it was, it wasn't pleasant. "You're talking about past boyfriends, right?" I nodded. Kenma was surprisingly smart for the way he seemed. "All those times, who took the first step?"

"They did," I answered him, not really seeing just what he was getting at.

Kenma turned his eyes back to the ceiling. He was never one for much eye contact. "So in theory, if you were the one to take the first step this time, then it would already be different than all the other times. Right?"

As much as I wanted to, I couldn't argue his logic. But taking that first step always required a certain level of confidence and courage, something I was lacking. My eyes shifted down to the floor. "I... I want to be closer to you..." My voice was shaking as I spoke, but I had to say it now or I never would. "I want it more than anything... but... the thought that I might hurt you if I get any closer makes me scared as hell..."

"You want to take that first step, but you're too scared to actually do it," Kenma said, summing up what I was feeling a little too easily. Maybe he'd felt the same way at some point. After a moment of quiet, he got an idea. "Let's leave it up to fate to decide."

"How?"

I cast a wary glance in his direction. "We're evenly matched in this game." No, Kenma was actually slightly better, but today had been a sort of off day for him. "If I win, you take that first step today. If you win, you do it when you decide that you're ready."

It was a simple solution in a way, but too easily rigged. We started off playing our best, but as it went on, I realized something: I wanted Kenma to win. So I started playing at half-best, glancing at the quiet setter out of the corner of my eye. As a gamer, he had to play his best or it wouldn't have been right.

But I knew that if he didn't want to win, he wouldn't and that was enough to give me a small boost of courage. I tossed my controller aside and placed a hand on Kenma's cheek. What I wanted was to take that first step and to be with him. Turning his face towards me, I quickly closed the distance between us.

 _Extended Ending:_

Kenma walked into practice to see the rest of his teammates waiting for him. Normally Kuroo would have walked with him, but he'd gone on ahead of him today. And now he stood there with everyone crowded around and staring at something on his cell phone.

"So how was it?" Kuroo asked, though Kenma had no idea what he was even talking about and simply looked at him in confusion. "I was seriously beginning to think you'd never lose it."

And now the young setter was even more lost. "What are you even talking about?"

"You losing your v-card yesterday."

Kenma just sighed. "Never happened." That hadn't been what had happened at all. The most that happened was a kiss. Or maybe a few.

Kuroo and the team didn't believe that. "Oh? Then explain this." The bedheaded captain held up his cell phone that was displaying a picture he'd taken the night before. In it was Kenma laying on his back with someone leaning over him. The picture wasn't that clear since it had been taken through two windows, but it appeared that this other person was kissing him. Of course, it appeared to be a lot more intimate than it really had been.

"My girlfriend fell on top of me when she tried to kiss me, that's all," Kenma said calmly, as if he were merely explaining a volleyball play.

Even so, Kuroo smirked. "I knew something happened with you two." The little setter didn't point out that he could only have known that if he were looking into Kenma's bedroom window from his own which (unfortunately for Kenma) was right across from his.

"Yes, but not what you're thinking in that perverted head of yours."

"You know think that way too."

"I do not."

"Do too."

"Do not."

There was a moment of silence. "You do."

"Do not."


End file.
